âBut you need to look at the events of yesterday,â he urged. âThe shelling of the UN position, which is long-established and clearly marked, started in the morning and went on till after 7:00 p.m., when we lost contact.â

âYou can imagine the anguish of the soldiers and the men and women â unarmed military observers â who were down there in the service of peace,â he said, stressing that the peacekeepers were in frequent touch with the Israeli army, pleading with them to avoid striking their location.

However, Mr. Annan added, âwe await the investigations.â

Meanwhile, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jane Holl Lute, also welcomed Israelâs call for an investigation, transmitting the Organizationâs preference for a joint probe, as she briefed the Security Council today on the fatal incident.

UNIFIL reported that 21 strikes were made within 300 meters of the patrol base yesterday, with the mission protesting each one to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Ms. Holl Lute added that she herself, as well as Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, made several calls to Israelâs UN embassy to reiterate those protests.

After UNIFIL headquarters lost contact with the base, it coordinated safe passage for two armoured personnel carriers, which reached it at 9:30 p.m. and discovered the shelter collapsed among other major damage, she said. Three observers were found killed and a fourth is feared dead.

Despite repeated requests to the IDF for abatement, firing was maintained during the rescue operation, she added, and continued to strike near UNIFIL positions as she spoke.

Shelling the UN all day was a huge mis calculation by the zionists. This news may never be played to the American sheep, opps I mean well meaning tax-payer, but the news will definitely be re played in all the worlds media. Anti semites are probably smiling ear to ear. I feel sorry for the Jews in Israel. They're being screwed by the Zionists and screwed by the Arabs.